The
Exploration Club, The Belfry,
Road
The views expressed by contributors to the Belfry Bulletin,
including those of club officers, are not necessarily the views of the
committee of the Bristol Exploration Club or the Editor, unless so stated. The Editor cannot guarantee that the accuracy
of information contained in the contributed matter, as it cannot normally be
checked in the time at his disposal.
Editor: D.J. Irwin, Townsend Cottage, Priddy, Nr. Wells,
Contents
Dates For Your Diary
October 14th
Eldon Hole (phone Dave Metcalf
for details
October 20th
Stream Passage Pot (phone Dave
Metcalf for details
November 25th
Leck Fell Pippikin Pot (phone
Dave Metcalf for details
December 8th
BCRA Winter Meet, Wells. Provisional programme being arranged by Jim
Hanwell includes a survey of work carried out at Westbury Quarry (Chris
Hawkes);
and the humorous talk by Jim Hay a repeat of the BCRA lecture. In addition JayRat and Wig will arrange a
static display of selections of their caving prints and Mendip postcards. At the moment it is hoped that the Teacher
Training Centre in Wells will be available for this meeting. A dinner is being arranged at the Hunters in
the evening.
New Year Dates
April 25th NCA Symposium Caves
and the Community, Buxton.
September 22-28 European Regional
Speleo Conference,
The Eighth International Speleo
Congress is being held in
in the US of A on July 19-24th 1981
Club Notes
compiled by ‘Wig’
CLUB TRUSTEES
As a result of a trustee wishing to resign, the introduction
of the new constitution at the 1978 Annual General Meeting which requires
trustees to be members of the club, Martin Cavender is drawing up the official
paperwork naming the new trustees as from the 1st October 1979. As from that date the new trustees are:
Bob Bagshaw, Roy Bennett, Les
Peters and Alan Thomas
CAVE KEYS HELD AT THE BELFRY
At the September Committee meeting it was decided that
guests wishing to borrow cave keys from the Belfry will leave a deposit of £5
for the key and each member of the party will be charged 25p per head hire
charge. This charge is to recoup some of
the expenses incurred by the club through its sub to the CSCC and the
Charterhouse Caving Committee. Members
will be able to obtain the keys free of charge but they are reminded that any
guests on their party are liable to the 25p charge.
DIGGING COMPETITION – Scores so far!
had some 330ft of assorted passage at the end of September – mainly in
Swildon’s Hole. Another 50ft plus is in
the offing in Shatter Chamber Extensions.
B.E.C. are at lust getting worried! 50ft of new passage was found in Tynings
recently and on 29th September, Danny Bradshaw and Bob Cork added 254ft in
Wookey 24 (still going); Manor Farm is being saturated with digging teams in an
effort to boost this. A secret weapon in
the form of Chris Richards can at last be revealed with a new cave on
N.B. We must also
dutifully report the sad loss of some 4,500ft of passage by the
– not 3,000,000 miles away from
Lane
have a lot to catch up!
Hon. Treasurers Report, 1979
completing our current
series of club officers reports, Sue Tucker presents
As Treasurer I have had a very enjoyable year serving on the
Committee, and would like to thank the Committee for all their help.
Since the start of the Club year I have made a little alteration to the books, and have
opened many more accounts to give clarity and to ease the accounting load at
the end of the year. I have also taken
over from John Dukes the responsibility for B.B. postal (which ties in closely
with the subs) and, when necessary, the collation.
I am very pleased with the way that the subs have come in
this year und trust it wasnt entirely due to the cost, and hope that the club
membership will continue to support the club in the very difficult years ahead.
It has been a greet disappointment to me that the club made
a loss this year, caused by inflation (coupled with a 2/3 year sub) not only
catching up with us, but souring way beyond expectations, whilst the club tries
to survive on a grossly inadequate sub.
The main areas of expenditure have been:-
Repairs & Maintenance £233
Insurance incl. Pub. liability
£312
Electricity incl. showers £218
Replacement of tackle £184 (after the losses of last year).
and, of course, the B.B. This has cost the club a staggering £461 of which £70 was spent on
envelopes and £176 on two years supply of paper. This was off-set by a sub of £356 – a loss of
£105 not taking into account other items the subscription has to cover, i.e.
insurgence, and I cannot foresee this figure getting any smaller, as this year
we will have to purchase envelopes, the next paper and so on ad infinitum, we
of course, have to take into consideration the postage which has just risen.
So the sub must rise drastically in order for the club to
recoup the losses, keep puce with inflation and be in a position to keep the
hut in an adequate state of repair (let alone improvements) if we are to
compete with other clubs on Mendip.
I have done some research on the projected cost of the B.B.
for next year und hope that this AGM will digest the figures and NOTE the
savings to the club of the alternatives.
All figures worked on an Est. 250 envelopes per month:
ENVELOPES
|
|
4, 000 purchased |
Monthly |
Bi-monthly |
Quarterly |
|
|
Sept 78 |
£70 outlay |
250 x 12 |
250 x 6 |
250 x 4 |
|
|
|
|
=3,000 |
= 1,500 |
=1, 000 |
|
|
|
|
=£52.50 |
= £26.25 |
=£17.50 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sept 79+ |
£104 outlay |
250 x 12 |
250 x 6 |
250 x 4 |
|
|
|
|
=3,000 |
= 1,500 |
=1,000 |
|
|
|
|
=£79.00 |
= £39.00 |
=£26.00 |
|
|
|
|
INCREASE: |
£26.50 |
£13.25 |
£8.50 |
+ Supplier: Harpercroft. I phoned the supplier on 27.9.79, todays price for 4,000 envelopes
would be £104, unfortunately they have not that amount in stock, there is a 20
week delay in delivery from the manufacturers and Harpercroft cannot guarantee
the price as they do not know what it will be.
All the following figures are worked on an est.
postings and 30 various o/seas countries.
1978/79 total postage £133.73. 1979/80 total postage £283.20 (est)
|
Pages +
6
12
18
|
Grams
60
100
150 |
8p
11p
13½p |
Oseas surface
20
20
20 |
Example
|
Est. cost
220x12x8 = 211.20 30x12x20p = 72.00
220x6x11p = 145.20 30x6x10p = 36.00 220x4x13½ = 118.80 30x4x36p = 43.20 |
Total
283.20
181.20
162.00 |
Join the est. figures for postage and envelopes together:
Monthly 362.00; Bi-monthly 220.20 and quarterly: 188.00 – surely the figures
speak for themselves. Sue Tucker
Cambridge
Bottom Eislufthohle
Nick Thorne has sent in
the following report on his trip to
with the
Late July and August of this year saw Cambridge University
Caving Club in the Totes Gebirge of Austria again, for the fourth year
running. Unlike previous expeditions
which spent a large proportion of the time prospecting, this year’s expedition
had only one objective. Our prospecting
to date had unearthed no fewer than three pots in the 200-300m depth range and
one, Eislufthohle, 350m deep and still going. And it was Eislufthohle, with its powerful draught and huge shafts, that
was the sole raison detre for this years effort. As the pot became deeper and harder to push,
it was clear that a more serious expedition was required than ever before, with
the sole aim of bottoming the place. Consequently it was a small (only eight) but dedicated bunch of
Cambridge Speleos that took to the field this summer, gunning for a really deep
pot.
Eislufthohle, discovered in 1977, is situated on the Loser
Plateau, reached by driving up a toll road in the
(near Bad Aussee, about 35Km from the Dachstein where Graham Wilton-Jones and
JRat were) and then walking through pasture for about an hour. In the year of its discovery Eislufthohle was
pushed to 150m depth to the Tap Room (see survey). This involved descending the 75m Plugged
Shaft. This snow and ice nasty begins
after an initial snow slope and spirals down through snow plugs and icicles,
the pitch being split several times. Immediately following this is Saved Shaft, 13m to the Boulder
Chamber. Crawling through boulders leads
to a climb down and a crawling traverse over a puits-en-bayonette. This pitch was descended in 1977, but since
it had no draught it was consequently named Keg Series, and abandoned in favour
of a route beyond the pitch head. This
way was followed down a short climb and a broken 30m pitch to a vadose canyon
and the Tap Room a good sized chamber to end exploration for a year.
Last year CUCC pushed Eislufthohle to still bigger things. A climb down and a crawling traverse led to a
small chamber with a huge boulder suspended in the roof, and the take off to
the fourth pitch in the floor. The pitch
begins as a slot and widens into a fine sized rift with a small stream falling
at one end. About 15m down the rift
lenses in a little and the rope was belayed for a further 30m descent to the
floor. We were tackling exploration at
this sort of depth last year, as some of you will doubtless remember by caving
overnight. (This avoided negotiating the
difficult Lapiaz to the cave entrance during darkness). We pushed our sleepy bodies down the short
fifth pitch, having made a ‘bold step’ across the passage to reach the pitch
head. Next came a superb piece of pot,
guaranteed to blow the cobwebs out of anyones brains. A short traverse led to the spectacular
Greene King Pitch. This drop is huge and
black and the rope hangs nicely free in a finely sculptured corner of the main
shaft. The Balcony Pitch follows
immediately to gain the floor of the ‘Hall of the Greene King’.
After essentially nothing but good, honest grabbing
vertically, we were then surprised and not a little disappointed when
Eislufthohle started spreading outwards. A large passage with equally large hanging death led to a short pitch
from jammed boulders. From the bottom
the route forked. At the time we
followed the right hand passage along a traverse to a very muddy, broken 20m
pitch, a free climb and more traversing. This year we took the left fork and managed to bypass this section, of
which more later.
This next traverse was quite a long one in a very tall
vadose canyon. Although not technically
difficult it was quite arduous, especially with tackle. It ended in a slippery mud slope/pitch, The
Fiesta Run. Below this the mud cleared a
little and the traverse continued down to another pitch head with the dull roar
of water somewhere down below. It was at
this stage during last years exploration that proceedings were bought to an
abrupt stop by a car accident. (See B.B. 321 for an action replay of all the
gore).
With the accident being caused, in no small way, by the fact
that we were caving overnight, it should come as no surprise to learn that we
gave up such tactics this year. Instead
we supplemented our luxurious base camp in the village with a smaller advanced
camp at the edge of the Karren Field (about 20 minutes walk from the cave) and
then linked the cave and the advanced camp with a long length of high
visibility polyprop string. On the whole
this ploy proved very successful despite several very cold, sleepless nights up
at advanced camp, piling boulders onto tents in order to stop them taking off
in the driving rain. To be honest it was
very comforting knowing that the camp was here bringing civilization a little
closer to you after a long, hard trip.
It took us three trips to rig in down to The Hall of the
Greene King at the start of this years caving, the main stumbling block being a
new arrangement of snow in Plugged Shaft necessitating new bolts. Then, continuing down below the eighth pitch
we decided to make the left fork, the main route. (The right fork is omitted
from the survey). This way descended a
fine free hanging 15m pitch and reached more traversing. After a short distance a 10m pitch entered a
small chamber containing an expedient little water trough, ideal for washing
muddy ironmongery – The Gents. Below The
Gents the previous years route was picked up on the long traverse to the Fiesta
run.
Once below this we were soon at the limit of previous
exploration and moral began to rise with each of us eager to be ‘out in
front’. We started to rig the twelfth
pitch of the pot. After only three
metres the way on down seemed fairly thrutchy and more obvious was a traverse
outwards. This was followed to a broken
15m pitch and a free climb down to the base of a sizable aven. The passage was totally dry, the stream
having been left at the previous pitch. What on earth was the pot doing now? The outlet from the chamber/aven was a descending traverse to the
inevitable next pitch. This again was a
broken 15m one, but unlike the last one, this one landed in a fairly restricted
passage. One of our lunatic fringe
pushed this tight, muddy grovel for perhaps 30m until he popped out into the
roof of another shaft, quite roomy, that he estimated as 15m to a floor with a
stream. Had we picked up the stream way
again?
We were never to find out. The difficulties involved with this dry route made sure that the next
party in the cave had a closer look at the twelfth, later named Madlmair Shaft
after our beer vending campsite owner, in order to push downwards instead of
the traverse. The restricted pitch head
soon opened out and a ‘good’ descent was made, 28m down to a ledge, the shaft
continuing. We were back in business.
The next trip saw tackle hastily pulled out of the dry route
and down the new shaft Eislufthohle had answered our prayers and returned to
its former vertical self. So much so
that in one trip 120m of depth was added, with yours truly swinging on the rope
of the fifteenth pitch very close to the 500m mark. I say swinging because the rope was actually
3m short of the floor! Ah well. The cave covered on this trip included a
fine, wet 33m section from the ledge to the floor of Madlmaier Shaft. An ‘under/over’ type move followed (everybody
went over as under was wet) and then the 13th pitch. This was descended 50m in a large dry gully,
the stream having been lost in the floor. One rebelay was required just over half way down. The stream then reissued from a hole high up
in the wall and cascaded down onto the free climb and pitch that followed. The 14th pitch was noted for its airy take
off from natural belays. (One of the few
non-bolted pitches in the pot). It was
quite wet and gave onto a large platform at the head of the 15th pitch. This pitch as I said before had to wait for
another trip and a longer rope to the bottom, but nonetheless the view onwards
was encouraging to say the least. The
passage was about 5m wide, goodness knows how high, mid simply went on off into
the inviting blackness as far as a light could shine. Eislufthohle was getting bigger all the
time. It had the 500m depth barrier
beaten, and looked like making mincemeat of the 600 one too
And then
..
Well, I suppose all good things must come to an end. The weather closed in something rotten, and
for about 5 days it rained heavily and the wind blew. And of course now we had a cave where it
mattered whether it rained or not. The
lower pitches would be awash and further exploration had to wait. Several bad nights were spent up at advanced
camp waiting for the sun to shine and calculating runoff times. The expedition was drawing to a close and
time was running out (I think I’ve written about the previous two years weather
as well!) We reckoned on one last
pushing trip providing that we combined it with a little
surveying/photography/de-rigging.
When the break in the weather finally came, we soon got down
to the head of the 15th amidst lots of flashbulbs going off. A proper length rope was rigged and 20m
descended to the floor. The stream ran
along just under the boulder floor, and the passage sloped steeply past huge
boulders in the floor and ceiling, and then absolutely unmistakably thick,
black mud covered rock. It was mud
created by a sump backing up – the pot would shortly end. Soon the head of the pitch was reached. Drop tests indicated a short pitch with a
deep pool just ahead. An interested
party soon gathered at the pitch head to witness the placing of what we
believed to be our last bolt in Eislufthohle.
With the pitch rigged, we descended and our footprints soon
desecrated the virgin black mud on the bouldery shore of an enormous lake – the
far wall being only just visible. How
inconceivable that a passage of such size should close down to a sump, yet it
had. Eislufthohle had been bottomed.
Turning about, we began to de-rig. Our moment of glory was soon weighed under by
wet pitches, tackle hauling and prusiking with tackle. In one massive effort our five man party
managed to clear the cave below the Hall of the Greene King. We eventually emerged to a starlit sky after
about 15 hours underground. Over the
remaining few days of the expedition, in blistering sun again, the gear was
bought the rest of the way to the surface, and so back to base. Our advanced camp had served its purpose too,
and was dismantled.
As we packed to leave for home, we considered both
achievements arid plans. We had taken
three years to bottom a 500m pot, something none of us had done before. We had gained valuable expedition experience
in what, by continental standards, I believe is not a simple pot. Unfortunately we have no complete high grade
survey of the place. Our grade 5 survey
stopped at the Tap Room with a defective Clino, and the rest of the cave was
just a question of measuring pitch lengths. This exercise alone however, makes us feel confident that 506m is a
minimum depth possible for the pot.
For the future, then I think few of us, if any will return
to this exact area of Austria again for at least a couple of years. This in no way reflects the caving potential
of the area as our results will testify. Finding deep pots on the Loser Plateau is a real clinch; pushing them
however, as one of our rank dryly points out, is a little more difficult. Our reasons not to return in force for a
couple of years stems from a desire to see some other countries and karst areas
in order to widen our experience. Most
of us havent seen a continental cave outside Eislufthohle!
Finally I would like to thank the IDMF committee for
donations towards my expenses over the last couple of expeditions. The aid I found invaluable; so much so that I
would like to see the fund continue for a long while yet for others to use,
supplying the capital in future quite possibly by repaying donations.
Cavers Bookshelf No. 6
Vertical Caving by
Mike Meredith
64pp. 17 plates. 169 drawings. £2.50
This book does not set out, to cover Single Rope Techniques
in as much depth as Thrun or Montgomery. Provided one accepts that its scope is
limited to “French” systems and Petzl equipment, then it becomes a
good publication to read in conjunction with practical experience.
The ethics of using bolts in the number and with the
frequency advocated on the continent is of course a matter of debate. Whether in ten or twenty years this amount of
discretion will be looked back on with distaste or acceptance of the method as
essential for the sake of safety, only time will tell. The fact is that Mike Meredith’s book gives a
sound and very clear description his chosen techniques, with only one
exception.
It is a shame that there is one area of apparent
contradiction when he comes to deal with the use of the “Shunt”. He quite correctly states that because this device
will absorb shock loading by sliding to a stop on the rope, rather than having
a cutting cam, it is very suitable for use as a “dead man’s handle”
while abseiling etc. However on page 29
he states:-
A shunt cannot be safely used for self life-lining and on
page 37 he says that a shunt should not be used as a safeguard when bolting a
traverse line at the head of a pitch”
This apart, this book represents good value for money, by
todays standards, must be compulsory reading for continental expedition
members.
Lifeline
by Time Large
One year closes and another begins. You will have noticed from your ballot paper
that Chris Bastone and Martin Bishop are not standing for the Committee. Chris has been Hut Warden for several years
now and has decided to take a well earned rest. It will be difficult to find a comparable replacement.
The Club Sweat Shirts have been ordered and should be here
soon. If you have not already ordered
one then do so ready for the next order as all are spoken for on the first
supply.
The Treasurers report will highlight the clubs financial
position. As has already been detailed
in the B.B. subs will need increasing. Our Building Society capital is greatly reduced to cover ever increasing
costs and to offset the reduced sub this year. Although covering only 9 months our major expenses for the period
remained the same as usual. In some
cases e.g. insurance, there were premium increases.
While not wishing to criticise life-members, and all that
they have done for the club in the past, I think that they have had good value
for their money. Life Membership will
always be theirs but I wonder if the clubs financial position could be slightly
alleviated if they could contribute towards the costs of printing and postage
of their B.B. – what do you think Life Members?
I hear from Zot that he has a job on an Antarctic Survey
supply ship, and is leaving before he can provide his usual humour at the
Dinner.
Star Mines Shipham
(Ed. note – my apologies for the error of name the author
should be recorded as Neil Weston.
LOCATION MAP:
Jottings
Compiled by Wig
REMOVAL OF FIXED AIDS FROM
Following the notes on possible liabilities having fixed
aids in caves published by NCA (published in the BB) the South Wales Caving
Club have reviewed the situation within caves under their control. Those to be retained is listed below, for
other locations with aids should be assumed that they have been removed and
tackle taken with you on the trip.
All aids have been removed.
OFD1
Entrance ladders
Maypole chain
Maypole wire
Bolt Traverse wire, bar and ladder
Bolt traverse 2 wire (presumably this is the ‘jury Fairy’ line.)
Lowe’s chain
Poles across the pots.
OFD2
Letterbox handline
Divers Pitch Handline
Skyhook lines to be fitted to Fault Aven Series
Arête rope
Great Oxbow ladder (alternative to be placed)
Maypole Inlet ladder
OFD3
Belay bolt on Crevasse
Maypole bridge
D.Y.O.
Bolt for ladder into G. Platten
Hall
Dalis Delight handline
Abyss handline
Rising ladder
Flabbergasm Oxbow handline around pool
Bolt for ladder into
Road
The SWCC state that though they intend to inspect the
remaining aids regularly is recommended that all are supplemented by a
lifeline.
TYNING’S BARROW – Following the re-opening of the
cave and a newly agreed access arrangement with the farmer the Belfryites have
been down and have pushed Drunken Horse Passage to its conclusion. Jay-Rat and Tim Large investigated the ruckle
at the upper end of the passage and located a short side rift ending in a sump
and on the north side located a sizable chamber above the boulders –
Mountbatten Chamber. Details of the
access arrangements and of this chamber is given else where in this BB.
LAMB LEER access is now controlled by the Council of
Southern Caving Clubs and the BEC, as a shareholder of the Southern Caving
Clubs Ltd has a key. It should be
remembered that all cavers should call at Beaconsfield Farm for permission to
park and change in the disused quarry. Anyone finding the lock faulty or that the lock is missing should
contact Oliver Lloyd, the director of the company dealing with Lamb Leer
access.
Wessex Cave Club Journal reports that on Wednesday 30th May
that severe flooding occurred on
to Stoke Lane Slocker was submerged under a foaming whirlpool. A minor collapse in the
into the cave itself.
BANWELL BONE CAVE SURVEY
In the last B.B. (Aug/Sept 1979) was the first publication
of Chris Richard and Marie Clarke’s survey of the
Tucker (author of ‘
that they (John Tucker and Percy Baker) have produced a booklet entitled The
Baker Extension to the
difference in my cross, section of the entire cave system, but this only an
approximate sketch of the system based on lower grade surveys and the smoke
tests carried out by the Axbridge Group. If members would like copies they con have one for 20p each, which will
just about cover postage and envelope.
This publication is a nicely produced, type-set,
publication, 14 pages including 7 photographs, a plan and elevation with
sections of the Baker Extension and a short bibliography. For those collecting details of Mendip caves
through publications this is an extremely interesting and good buy.
Whilst on the subject of the
it is as well to give details of the latest position regarding access. The cave access is vested in the Dundry
Caving Group (no longer any connection with the South Bristol S.S.) apparently
a club of about two members only. Access
is through Steve Redwood of Banwell but you have to be led down the caves or
whether you are able to collect a key is not known. From some of my usual resources the house is
up for sale again in the near future so this will see a change in access
arrangements again remains to be seen. Currently there is no restriction on Sunday caving as there was with the
previous owner.
WOOKEY HOLE
Recently little stickers have been appearing everywhere on
Mendip and some were seen at the BCRA Conference in Manchester stating that the
BEC get everywhere, one was even appearing on Oliver Lloyds back for a
time! Whether this is true or not they
are certainly getting to the far reaches of the Wookey System. Bob Cork and Danny dived through to Wookey 24
and laid the aerial for a radio transmission on the 29th September. Duly on the day, Prew et al assembled on
the hillside above the cave and found as with previous locating exercises that
the expected point was miles form the actual location. This time the coil was laid out in Wookey
near Sting Corner and from the CDG survey of the area it was expected to find
the point above the top end of the large dry passage of Wookey Twenty. This was not to be the location was found
to be some 400ft to the east.
After switching on the transmitter, Bob and Danny went off
to explore the Oxbow above the active river in the far reaches of Wookey 24 and
found approximately 250ft of new passage trending to the north-west, ending at
a deep rift requiring tackle. M Presumably this will be an additional 250ft for
the Digging and finding of new passage Barrel Competition more of this later.
EASTWATER CAVERN
The notorious ruckle is on the move again and the cave is
blocked. The
art re-entry and all they have succeeded in doing is to upset the farmer and
blown in the cliff above the cave. Very
careful negotiations are in hand with the farmer and one or two Mendip cavers
in an attempt to recover the political situation and to allow an attempt to
re-enter the cave to get under way. It
should never be forgotten that many of the farmers on Mendip let cavers have
access to the cave entrances form a friendly basis and anyone doing a foolish
and stupid action as at Eastwater could see the caves well and truly closed.